CHICAGO (Reuters) - Early results from a clinical trial of
Roche Holding AG cancer drugs released on Saturday suggest some
promise in matching treatments based on abnormalities found in a
patient's tumor rather than the organ in which the cancer was
originally detected.

The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the
American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, showed that 29
out of 129 patients with 12 different types of advanced cancers
responded to drugs targeting genetically driven abnormalities.

The drugs were administered outside of indications currently
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which
generally reviews drugs using studies based on the type of organ
where the cancer was found.

The trial, which received funding from Roche's Genentech
unit, is designed to eventually enroll up to 500 patients.

The most promising results to date were seen in patients
with tumor abnormalities linked to the HER2 protein.

Seven of 20 patients with colorectal cancer, three of eight
with bladder cancer, and three of six with biliary cancer saw
tumor shrinkage of 30 percent or more after treatment with a
combination of Roche drugs Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Perjeta
(pertuzumab), which target HER2 and are typically used to treat
breast cancer.

The researchers said the trial will expand those groups of
patients, as well as a separate group with BRAF mutations in
lung cancer who were treated with Zelboraf (vemurafenib), which
is approved for melanoma.

"With genomic testing of tumors becoming increasingly
available, studies such as ours will help more patients benefit
from precision medicine approaches," lead study author Dr John
Hainsworth, senior investigator at Sarah Cannon Research
Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement.

The study also included Roche's Everidge, a basal cell
carcinoma drug that targets the a cancer-related signaling
pathway known as Hedgehog and Tarceva (pembrolizumab), a lung
cancer drug that targets epidermal growth factor receptor
(EGFR).

Such targeted drugs are seen as a type of personalized
medical therapy designed to treat cancer by interrupting unique
molecular abnormalities that drive cancer growth. The targeted
drugs are designed to interfere with a specific biochemical
pathway central to the development, growth, and spread of that
particular cancer.

During the trial, 14 patients who initially responded to
treatment saw their cancer eventually worsen.

The researchers said they plan to study other drugs,
including Roche's Cotellic (cobimetinib), an MEK inhibitor,
currently approved for advanced melanoma.